God, “Valkyrie” has taken such a beating in the press, we actually feel bad for Tom Cruise and director Bryan Singer. 1) for Singer because people are hating on the film because of Cruise’s involvement and 2) cause Cruise, alien Scientologist leader or not, he is probably a fairly personable guy, right?
MGM pulled its December 12 critics screenings which makes the film ineligible for awards from the New York Film Critics Circle or National Board of Review. The Newark Star Ledger’s Stephen J. Whitty concluded what some people felt was obvious in a self-explanatory piece called, “Valkyrie Surrenders” (Whitty wrote: “Those screening date [changes] actually send a subtle, but very clear message of defeat.) Jeffrey Wells called the move another MGM “distress signal” about the film.
MGM has responded: “We have a great, strong, commercial movie and are quite proud of it,” says Vollman. “It is also the type of movie that will be deserved of intelligent critical analysis. We want Valkyrie to be judged on it’s own, not as one of a cramped herd of dissimilar artistic endeavours lumped together unfairly due to the vagaries of the calendar and the marketplace.”
Fair enough, but with all this bad press so far, they’ve got to realize this news is not a good look, right? It doesn’t help that some people have called Cruise’s performance in the film, unintentionally funny and “laughable.” The script was problematic and we’re still willing to give “Valkyrie” a shot, but we must admit, it’s not looking too good right now.
Update: People who have seen it write in to Hollywood Elsewhere claiming its not as bad as everyone thinks it’s going to be. “It’s no ‘Ishtar,’ ” they stress, speaking about the notorious 1987 expensive comedy starring Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty’s about remarkably untalented lounge singers in Morocco that bombed at the box-office. But you know what, maybe it’s cause we were kids at the time, but we loved “Ishtar,” and its silliness has a special place in our hearts.
Also let’s note that the Gold Derby suggests that the film could be Razzie-worthy. Oooof.